Williams College Landscape Study
“We aspire to be a community where all members thrive: where they feel a sense of belonging and being valued… where they live and work in safe, welcoming, and comfortable spaces. These aspirations are based upon an understanding that in higher education, diversity, equity, and inclusion are inextricably linked to excellence.”
-Excerpt from Williams College DEI Working group plan
Williams College is an elite private institution nestled among the rolling hills of western Massachusetts. The terrain, though uniquely beautiful, presents significant accessibility challenges that are at odds with the school’s commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). In one of many engagements with Williams, KMA was invited to work with frequent collaborators Reed Hilderbrand to complete a campus-wide analysis of the school’s 450 acres, including pedestrian mobility.
The KMA team walked every linear foot of the college’s pathways with a smart level, documenting existing accessibility conditions by utilizing an ArcGIS platform. This work, which produced both statistical and graphic analyses of the pedestrian network, alerted the college to immediate opportunities to address specific problem areas while also providing the necessary data to develop a long-term accessibility plan.
In developing this plan, KMA helped the college formulate and implement a “lily pad” approach to accessibility. The strategy centers on accessible parking and shuttle stops that serve key locations throughout the campus. Accessible routes and elements then radiate outward from these site arrival points, creating zones of accessibility, or “lily pads.” This approach allowed the college to efficiently concentrate its efforts in a finite set of areas, rather than spending excessive resources on the daunting task of constructing accessible routes across impossibly hilly terrain.
Renderings courtesy of Reed Hilderbrand LLC
